Frequently Asked Questions

A mortgage broker is essentially your mortgage advisor and your best friend throughout the mortgage process. They shop mortgage products for you, determine your loan suitability, guide you through the process, and the main role is securing you financing in a way that’s a lot more nimble, flexible, and a lot of the times faster than your big box lender.

A bank doesn’t specialize in mortgages. They’re kind of a jack-of-all-trades, and they can do it all, but they only have access to what they have access to.

A mortgage broker specializes specifically in mortgages only, and they have access to up to 200 different lenders. The thing is, these lenders are wholesale. They’re not able to actually go to the client directly.

So essentially, your mortgage broker has access to a lot more products and can shop around for you and find the most competitive rates, pricing, and terms, and help suit a client with their specific financial picture to a specific loan product a lot more than someone at a bank or big retail lender will be able to do, because they just have their products.

Not that they’re bad, they’re just a lot more limited and a lot less flexible. An example would be that it’s pretty rare that a bank will do manufactured homes in a park, manufactured homes on land, construction loans, reverse mortgages, VA, and USDA all in the same place.

One lender we have might specialize in each one of those specifically, but we have access to all of them.

So it’s that type of situation where, throughout the process, your mortgage broker is going to be your point of contact and actually secure your financing.

Yeah, it’s definitely better to go to a mortgage broker. That’s the trend right now too. Over the last 10 years specifically, there’s been a huge push into the broker world, and I’m seeing a lot of loan officers moving into the broker channel as well.

“Best” is a little tricky because it depends on your specific situation. But I would say if you were to take rates and products out of the picture, the best mortgage broker or mortgage lender is going to be the one that answers their phone, communicates, and is there when you need them.

That’s what we pride ourselves in, because a lot of times questions don’t pop up during an appointment. They pop up when you think of it, when you’re on Zillow. They pop up at 7:30 at night after work when you’re looking at homes with your family, or on the weekends when the banks are closed.

So the one that’s best is going to be personality-wise and customer service-wise, one that displays those character traits. On the other hand, if you are talking specifically about numbers, there are ways to compare price quotes, and it’s whatever numbers line up with your personal financial goals.

It depends on the circumstances of the client, but with a W-2, pretty cut-and-dry, cookie-cutter situation, it can be within the hour.

Very quick. Our application can be done in 10 minutes, document upload is super easy, and we can run through the process extremely quickly.

If we have to get third-party documents, or taxes have to be filed, or something like that, it can take longer. But at DC Lending, it’s always pre-approval or a plan, and usually one of those two can happen within 24 hours.

If you are a W-2 employee, two most recent W-2s, two most recent pay stubs, and two most recent bank statements will get us really far and we can pre-approve based on that.

If you’re self-employed, we’ll need two years of tax returns or bank statements depending on your specific situation.

Absolutely, and our process is super user-friendly.

The absolute minimum is 580, although I would recommend talking with a mortgage lender first, as we can soft pull your credit and help you build it up.

There’s going to be the absolute minimum, and then there’s going to be the credit score you’d actually like to secure a mortgage with.

I always recommend clients get into the mid-600s before wanting to purchase. Ideally, over 700 is best-case scenario, but mid-600s is where I think the terms are going to be good for the client.

I’ll answer that by saying connect with your mortgage broker early, because there could be things you could do to either improve your credit, improve your down payment, or improve other terms that help you secure the best rate for your situation.

The other thing is to go with a mortgage broker. That’s almost always going to be the way to get the most competitive interest rate because they can shop for you.

Instead of you checking with five people, there’s 200 lenders they can check.

There are a couple options. It depends on how much down payment you have to work with and your credit score.

The most common first-time buyer loans are going to be a 3.5% down FHA loan, and we have a down payment assistance product that’s underwritten to the same FHA terms if a down payment is an issue.

There’s also a 3% first-time buyer conventional loan that’s very common to use, or a 5% down conventional loan.

Depending on credit requirements and the specific financial picture, those products are the most common for first-time buyers.

It’s definitely possible. There’s a USDA loan that has no down payment. There’s a VA loan if you’re a veteran with no down payment.

We also have a couple of down payment assistance programs where the lender contributes the down payment, and those can either be forgiven or repayable.

We have had clients go to the closing table and get their earnest money back.

A lot of realtors won’t even show you a house without a pre-approval, and you’ll want to get pre-approved to determine what houses you should be looking at with your realtor.

Additionally, there’s a very wide spectrum with real estate agents, as there are with any profession, and at DC Lending we’ve worked with some of the best in the industry, and we’d love to introduce you to some of our best realtors.

I’ll answer that by saying connect with your mortgage broker early, because there could be things you could do to either improve your credit, improve your down payment, or improve other terms that help you secure the best rate for your situation.

The other thing is to go with a mortgage broker. That’s almost always going to be the way to get the most competitive interest rate because they can shop for you.

Instead of you checking with five people, there’s 200 lenders they can check.

It’s going to vary a lot because a lot of it is funding an escrow account, and that changes based on homeowner’s insurance and property taxes with that specific property.

The general rule of thumb is around 3 to 5 percent, and they’re going to be comprised of a couple buckets.

You’re going to have lender fees, third-party title fees, appraisal fees, and then the majority of it, if you have an escrow account, is going to be funding property taxes and homeowner’s insurance.

The other thing to know is it’s possible for lender credits to cover your closing costs, or seller concessions from the seller if you’re able to get those.

We love the mindset and type of client who does their due diligence. That’s exactly the type of people we love helping.

Our specialized services take the burden off you and let us shop around on your behalf to help secure the most competitive rate available for your situation.

Yes, it definitely can be, as a mortgage broker can shop multiple loans and multiple lenders for you.

Rates are always a touchy compliance topic, but the advantage of a broker is being able to check multiple lenders’ pricing and shop on your behalf.

A mortgage broker will be able to look at your current mortgage, do the math for you, and make sure that it makes sense.

A lot of these answers depend on your specific situation, and that’s why I always think it’s a good idea to talk to a mortgage broker early. There is no “too early.”

The role of a mortgage broker is advisor as well. They can look at your specific situation and give answers specific to your financial picture.

You will have to get a hard credit pull to refinance, but the general idea behind credit is that the point of having a good score is to use it.